Monthly Archives: September 2017

When I wrote my book CHIC: Tips on Life, Style, and Work, I shared stories about my life and my home. I gave tips on travel, food, fashion. I had no idea my publishers would give the book its title. To be chic is something I never attempted to attain. I always felt very under-chic myself. It’s a big word. All my life, I’ve always worked with what I have. But I did learn a few tricks along the way – from my mother, my friends, and the world that I move around in. And at my age, I know that being “chic” doesn’t just mean fashion or style. It’s how you live.

Last Christmas, I had an unplanned little get-together in my home. I was not prepared at all – no catered dishes, no fresh flowers, no nothing. So I rushed to S&R and tried to find things that would help “chicify” my tablescape. We somehow achieved it.

But living a CHIC life isn’t all about appearances. It is also about the invisible and smart choices you make – the ones that give you and your family a lot of comfort, good health, and an ease that seems so natural. It takes effort though.

Here is my attempt to share with you some tricks for an apparent chic home. Most of the tips I share contain products that will be on sale at the S&R Members’ Treat on September 27, 2017 until October 01, 2017 in all S&R warehouse clubs nationwide!

These cookie tins are always good to have in your pantry. They’re good for “just in case” and unplanned entertaining at home. They also make pretty gifts. I love cookie tins — I use them as storage containers. These are on sale at the S&R Members Treat.

2. Aim for a healthy breakfast. Ok, so we love our bacon and corned beef. But we consciously limit them to a few times a month. We make an effort to start the day right with fruit or green juice, plus our cereals and grains. Here’s an example of a recipe I shared in my book.

Chia seed pudding. You can use yoghurt, milk, or coconut or almond milk. Store it in the fridge over night. They’re nice and chewy the next morning.

Overnight oats make for great breakfast or healthy snacks. Just layer oats, yoghurt, flaxseed, chia seed, and top off with fruit or maple syrup.

We’re Canadian and we love our maple syrup. The kids love overnight oats.

Watch out for Dad D Pak Quick Oats at the S&R Members Treat sale. Oh look, they’re from the Canadian Prairies. Yay.

3. Use non-toxic laundry detergent. Since I am making a huge effort to detoxify our home – for my kids who have asthma, and for myself with possible hormone issues – I carefully choose our laundry products. This means less bubbles and no artificial scents. It takes a while to convert the whole household to believe in such products. We’ve been programmed to believe that bubbles equals cleansing. But really, bubbles just mean there’s a lot of detergent in the product. Luckily we have these in Manila now, via S&R.

Here’s what I use at home. It isn’t cheap. So I stock up on them when they are on sale.

Speaking of sale… Yay! These are included at the S&R Members Treat.

4. Always have spreads and good quality syrups at home.

You can use them as snack toppings, or if you’re like me, I actually try to make homemade ice cream. Spreads and syrups do well as flavouring on dairy ice cream. Or you can simply use them as bread or biscuit spreads, or coffee flavouring.

Heads up! Fundelina and Bickford’s are on sale at the S&R Members Treat event.

5. Fancy, not so fancy chips. I honestly am not a big junkfood snacker. I can do without potato chips with its salt and artificial flavouring. But if it has sea salt, herbs, natural flavour, and definitely no MSG, then I’ll take them.

I discovered these fancy chips in S&R, I got hooked. These root chips seem to be the healthier choice – sweet potato, cassava, purple potato. Yum.

These are good. Original Taro Chips. Look for them at the S&R Members Treat. (packaging may be different).

6. Chic people ride bikes.Or maybe not. Sometimes. Well, in a perfect world, we would all be wearing minimalist-style clothing and biking to and from work — like in Japan or the Netherlands. My husband is quite the bike guy. He is well-respected by his bike peers, (quite the connoisseur, I hear). So naturally our girls are growing up as bikers too.

Sophia and Lily love their bikes. Stella is still transitioning to a big bike.

I’ve always been riding a bike. I even had a horrible accident when I was 8 years old which left me with 16 stitches across my forehead. That’s in my book, by the way. I never stopped loving biking, but now I just do it for leisure because I’m terrified of too much sun exposure (my skin). Here’s a photo of me biking in the Google campus in California a few years ago. My husband thinks I liked biking there just because it felt like the entire outdoors had an air conditioner on — around 19 degrees. I think so.

Patrick’s bicycle-themed cake.

At the S&R Members Treat, this Schwinn Volare 1300 road bike is on sale.

Well, that’s all for now. I hope you liked my little list that I made. Let me know if you have suggestions for other lists I can compile for you.

The most eagerly anticipated S&R Members’ Treat is happening this September 27, 2017 until October 01, 2017 in all S&R warehouse clubs nationwide!

S&R Members will get five whole days of big value and even bigger savings, with Buy 1 Take 1 deals, Buy 2 Take 2 deals and price reductions of up to 50% off on lots and lots of S&R items – from grocery staples like breakfast essentials, baon goodies, yummy baked goodies, imported treats, to various gift items, housewares, towels and linens, and even select appliances – exclusive to all S&R members.